Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of livestock lost to dog attacks in each of the last five years; and what measures he is considering to tackle that matter.
Attacks on livestock by dogs are unacceptable and Defra works with the relevant stakeholders to find ways to prevent them. This includes advice to owners to keep their dogs under effective control. In 2018 we wrote to all police forces and local authorities to explain the powers and initiatives available to help tackle irresponsible dog ownership, including attacks on livestock.
Details on the number of cases of dogs attacking livestock that have been reported to the police would be held by each separate police force and are not collated centrally. No data are collected centrally on the number of livestock lost. The attached table provides the numbers of prosecutions and convictions in each of the last five years for England and Wales for which figures are available.
Numbers of people prosecuted/convicted for allowing a dog to worry livestock under s1 of Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953
Values | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
Prosecuted | 47 | 47 | 37 | 25 | 23 |
Convicted | 40 | 35 | 28 | 20 | 21 |